Staying Connected in the Golf Swing
The golf swing is one of the most complex movements in sports. There are many components involved in hitting a golf ball, including balance, body alignment, grip strength, tempo, rhythm, timing, and much more. Connecting all those parts together into a seamless motion requires practice and repetition.
A connected golf swing provides the best chance of delivering power, accuracy, and consistency to every shot. If you want to improve your game, you must connect the dots.
What is a Connected Golf Swing?
A connected golf swing means your body, arms and hands move in unison. This also means that when you swing your golf club, your arms move as one unit. Your upper body moves with your lower body. Your body should rotate around your hips rather than your shoulders. You want to feel like you are rotating both your shoulder blades and your hips rather than just your arms in isolation.
The connection between your body and your hands is what allows you to generate power through your entire body. It’s also what gives you control over the golf club at impact. A short swing that is connected delivers more power, faster speeds and better accuracy.
Why Connectivity Matters in the Golf Swing?
A golf swing that is all arms and no hips is like a car without wheels. It's going nowhere fast! A golf swing that is all hips and no arms is like a car with no engine. It's just sitting there doing nothing.
Connecting your arms and hips means that you're using your whole body to generate power. Your arms and legs are working together to create momentum. Your hips are rotating and your torso is turning. All these movements happen simultaneously and this creates a powerful golf swing.
Furthermore, when the upper and lower body move at the same time, your timing and the path of the golf club will become smoother and more consistent.T
Tips for Staying Connected in the Golf Swing
Some key tips for staying connected during the entire golf swing:
Keep your elbows a consistent distance apart throughout the swing. By keeping your arms from separating too much during the swing you arms stay connected to each other and to your body. This teaches you to use your big muscles and your core to swing the club.
A good drill is to squeeze a ball or glove between your arms and keep it there during the swing.
Maintain a consistent tempo, avoid overaccelerating. The answer lies in the speed at which you swing. If you're swinging too fast, you may hit the golf ball too hard; if you're swinging too slowly, you may not even reach the sweet spot. Control the tempo to stay connected.
Step 1: Setup
A connected golf swing starts with the setup
Starting with the correct setup is important so that you reap the full benefits of staying connected throughout your swing. You can have a nice connected swing but if your setup is not correct the result will not be what you want.
Setting up "connected" at address also makes it easier to feel connected during the swing.
Start by setting up properly for each shot. Set up correctly for an approach shot, a pitch shot, a chip shot, a putt, etc. Focus on keeping the upper part of the left arm attached and linked to the rest of the body in a soft way. Aim to maintain this connection during the swing.
A good drill is to put a glove or credit card under the left arm at setup and keep it there all the way through the swing. Doing this will enhance the feel you get of staying connected.
Maintain good posture and balance. If you are too far forward, you won't feel comfortable swinging the golf club. If you are too behind, you'll lose connection with the club face. The key is to set up so that you can move freely and hit the golf ball consistently from any position on the course.
Focus your mind on staying connected before initiating the backswing.
Step 2: Backswing
Maintain that connected feel at the top of the backswing to stay in sync
The backswing is the most important part of the golf swing because it determines how far you hit the golf ball. If you don't master the backswing, you'll never make consistent contact with the ball. Here are some tips to help you stay connected during the backswing.
The “V” must be maintained throughout the back swing as well as you keep both arms close together in the swing.
When your wrists hinge in the back swing, your hands should point towards the middle of your chest.
A good drill is to pause for a second at the top of the backswing before accelerating through the downstroke. This allows you to stay connected and maintain control of the club head while it accelerates into the golf ball during the downswing.
Step 3: Downswing
Stay connected all the way through to the finish
To stay connected during the downswing, you need to allow your arms to follow your hips. When your arms lag behind your hips, they become disconnected from the clubface. As a result, you won't get the desired amount of rotation or speed.
The first move of the downswing is weight transition. Weight transfer occurs when you shift your weight from your right towards your left foot. This helps you accelerate through the downswing. Start by rotating your hips whilst dropping your right shoulder and arms to ensure you stay on plane.
Be careful to allow your upper body to follow your lower in one smooth action. Many golfers suffer from a disconnection in their swing because they rotate their hips and torsos excessively during the downswing.
As you accelerate through the down-swing, try to keep your arms and shoulders moving in sync with your hips. It should feel like you are swinging the club with your shoulders not your arms. Keep your right elbow below and ahead of your forearms as if it is connected to your right hip and driving the downswing forward.
Rotation is important when it come to connectivity in the golfer's downswing. A good way to think about it is to imagine rotating your body 45° and your arm 90°. Your hips at impact should be open about 40 degrees. This allows your upper body, arms and club head to work together to produce maximum power and stay on plane through the swing.
Causes of a Disconnected Swing
Understand what a disconnected golf swing feels like to stay connected
The golf swing is a complex motion involving many muscles and joints. But when we're talking about a disconnected golf swing, there's only one culprit: our brain.
As an amateur golfer, when we're playing golf, our brains are busy processing information from our eyes, ears, hands, feet, and other senses. Our brains are constantly sending signals to our body telling us where our arms should be, how far back our shoulders should be, and whether our hips are open or closed.
But when we're swinging a golf club, our brains aren't paying attention. They're too busy trying to figure out how to hit the golf ball. So instead of focusing on the task at hand, our brains are distracted by thoughts of past mistakes, future goals, and other things going through our mind.
This distraction causes our bodies to move differently than they would normally. Instead of moving smoothly, our movements become jerky and stiff. And because our minds aren't focused on the task at hand (hitting the ball), our swings become disconnected.
To avoid disconnecting during the golf swing, try these tips:
Conclusion
In conclusion, golf is a sport that requires a lot of focus and concentration. However, it doesn't require anything fancy; all you really need is a set of clubs and a willingness to swing away. So whether you're a beginner who wants to improve their game or a lower handicap amateur golfer who already knows what they're doing, following the above steps will help you stay connected during your next round of golf.
Through regular practice you will begin to master the art of the connected golf swing and you'll find that it becomes much easier. As a result you should see more consistent scores on the course.
